Macragge's Honour
Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines Legion]] Macragge's Honour is an Imperial ''Gloriana''-class Battleship that serves as the flagship of Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. The Macragge's Honour is twenty-six kilometres of polished ceramite and steel armour, and is believed to be the largest of the Gloriana-class Battleships used by the Primarchs as their flagships. This flagship led the flotilla of the Ultramarines' warships which comprised the XIIIth Legion's 12th Expeditionary Fleet. It was from this flagship that Roboute Guilliman coordinated and prepared his forces before and during the infamous Battle of Calth at the beginning of the Horus Heresy. The vessel would remain an important component of the Ultramarines Chapter's fleet after the Second Founding, but would return to service most memorably under the command of Roboute Guilliman following his resurrection in the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41. The vessel served as the restored Lord Commander of the Imperium's flagship throughout the Terran Crusade, the Indomitus Crusade and the Plague Wars that followed. History Striking a Blow for Horus During the opening days of the terrible conflict that would become known as the Horus Heresy in later years, the Warmaster Horus launched his treacherous attack on the world of Istvaan III against the Loyalist elements within four of the Space Marine Legions under his command, including the Sons of Horus, the Emperor's Children, the World Eaters and the Death Guard. The Ultramarines remained ignorant of this fact. While Horus made his plans for what would become the infamous Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, the Warmaster sent word to the XVIIth Legion's Primarch Lorgar that the time had come for his Astartes, the Word Bearers, to strike against the Imperium. The Warmaster was keenly aware of the bitter hatred that Lorgar had for his Primarch brother Roboute Guilliman and his XIIIth Legion, the Ultramarines, who had once humiliated the Word Bearers by destroying their "Perfect City" of Monarchia on the world of Khur on the Emperor's direct orders during the early years of the Great Crusade. The Ultramarines had taken no pleasure in this act, which was intended to teach Lorgar and his Astartes to adhere to the atheistic doctrines of the Imperial Truth rather than spread the false belief that the Emperor was divine to all the worlds that they conquered. Yet Lorgar and the Word Bearers had never forgiven the Ultramarines for this action and they longed for vengeance against the XIIIth Legion. Horus told Lorgar that he had fed Guilliman false intelligence in regard to a possible threat within the Segmentum Tempestus, far to the galactic south of Terra. This supposed threat stemmed from the Orks of the Ghaslakh Empire. Horus had ordered the XIIIth and the XVIIth Legions to muster and meet at the world of Calth in the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar, in order to conduct a massive joint campaign of extermination against the Ghaslakh xenohold, a common mission for the Astartes during the final days of the Great Crusade. It would be at Calth that Lorgar would launch a surprise attack on the Ultramarines whilst they were gathered for the campaign against the Orks of Ghaslakh. The XIIIth Legion would be caught completely unaware while the Word Bearers would use the advantage of surprise to annihilate their hated rivals. The assault at Calth would also allow the Word Bearers to reveal that they, too, now served the Ruinous Powers. Calth was not chosen as the site of the confrontation between the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines by chance, for the Word Bearers intended to destroy one of the jewels in the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar (then known as the Ultramar Coalition), just as the XIIIth Legion had destroyed one of the Word Bearers' greatest achievements, the sacred city of Monarchia, four decades earlier. Horus ordered the majority of the XVIIth Legion to Ultramar, and the Dark Powers of the Warp gave them sure and swift passage across the increasingly restless Immaterium. As the Word Bearers entered Ultramarran space, Lorgar prepared his Legion for the inevitable slaughter that would follow. Command of the main assault force was given to Kor Phaeron, the First Captain of the XVIIth Legion and one of Lorgar's most favoured champions. Calth was to be Kor Phaeron's operation to execute, far more than it was Lorgar's. Kor Phaeron had planned the assault of Calth for his Primarch meticulously, and executed it with the aid of the Dark Apostle Erebus. The punishment and annihilation of the XIIIth Legion was the campaign's principal aim; the humiliation and execution of Lorgar's hated rival Roboute Guilliman was a secondary objective. But for Lorgar, the assault would also mark his first opportunity to gain true favour in the eyes of the Dark Gods he now served; to prove to them that he had earned his place as their Chosen One. The first phase of the Word Bearers' attack plan involved the capture of a vessel of the Ultramarines' fleet. The Word Bearers waylaid the fleet tender Campanile which was at the outer rim of the Viridian System which was home to Calth, boarded it and seized control. The Traitors intended to use the captured vessel to strike a crippling surprise blow against the Ultramarines' massed fleet in orbit of Calth that would mark the start of their vicious assault. Battle of Calth The Battle of Calth, also referred as the Calth Atrocity, was the name given by later Imperial scholars to the treacherous campaign conducted during the early stages of the Horus Heresy by the traitorous XVIIth Space Marine Legion, the Word Bearers, on behalf of the Warmaster Horus against their hated rivals, the Ultramarines. The campaign was launched by the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar Aurelian with the goal of exterminating the XIIIth Space Marine Legion outright. The purpose of the Word Bearers' invasion of the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy was to tie down the XIIIth Legion and prevent them from reinforcing their fellow Loyalists as the Traitor Legions marched relentlessly on Terra itself. The Macragge's Hounor would go on to play a rather substantial role during the Battle of Calth, as it was the command headquarters of Roboute Guilliman and the entire Ultramarines Legion, and it helped to coordinate the surviving Ultramarine forces in orbit as well as those on the surface of Calth during and after the battle. Shortly after the battle started, Robute Guilliman held another conference with his brother, Lorgar. The Bearer of the Word revealed his treacherous intentions to his disbelieving brother as the conversation ended when several daemons invaded the Ultramarine flagship and caused the central command bridge to explode, which led Guilliman to be missing for most of the battle. Shortly after this incident, the majority of the Macragge's Honour was infested by a horde of daemons of Chaos Undivided, and several of the Word Bearers' warships attempted to board the Ultramarines' flagship. However, a team of surviving Ultramarines were able to fight through the vessel and retake the flagship for the servants of the Emperor. ' flagship Infidus Imperator]] During a fight on the outer hull of the flagship in an attempt to disconnect the Word Bearers boarding ships from the Macragge's Honour, Roboute Guilliman was found to have survived the destruction of the command bridge and to have been flung out into the void, surviving only due to his superhuman Primarch anatomy. Guilliman was quickly rescued and taken back inside the flagship by his Astartes. Afterwards, Guilliman and several of his commanding officers led an Ultramarines' Kill-squad into the Zetsun Verid orbital shipyard in an attempt to seize control of Calth's orbital defensive weapons grid. Though successful in their efforts, they were unable to stop the Veridian System's blue sun from going nova and permanently poisoning Calth's atmosphere as a result of the use of the Calthian orbital weapons system on the Veridian star by the Word Bearers. Sensing that the battle was turning in the Ultramarines' favour, Kor Phaeron and his surviving Astartes retreated to the Word Bearers' flagship Infidus Imperator, and attempted to flee the Calth System. Guilliman ordered the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marius Gage to take command of the Macragge's Honour and give chase, which would lead to one of the most infamous starship duels in Imperial naval history. Pursuit of the Infidus Imperator Aerion Mersaror leads the assault against the traitorous Word Bearers]] Following the orders of his Primarch, Marius Gage gave immediate pursuit to the Infidus Imperator. While giving chase, three Word Bearers Cruisers turned to intercept the Ultramarines flagship to buy time for the Infidus Imperator to escape. Chapter Master Gage, assisted by Acting Shipmaster Ouon Hommed, opened fire upon the three Cruisers, destroying two of them in the first volley and crippling the third in the second. Kor Phaeron, having survived the confrontation with Guilliman, awoke from his grievous wounds and immediately ordered the Infidus Imperator to come about and face the Ultramarines' flagship. Sensing an opportunity to end the duel, Gage ordered the Ultramarines to prepare boarding parties to capture and destroy the Infidus Imperator from the inside. Leading the assault was Captain Aerion Mersaror and a cadre of Veterans in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour. The two warships met, coming alongside each other. Both vessels unleashed a simultaneous broadside into the other. Gage ordered Boarding Torpedoes fired and docking claws and siege bridges extended, disgorging thousands of Ultramarine Legionaries into the Infidus Imperator. The Ultramarine assault initially went well, quickly gaining ground aboard the Word Bearers vessel, when a build-up of unknown energy was suddenly detected by the sensorum on the Macragge's Honour's bridge. Seeing Chaos Cultists concluding a dark ritual, the Ultramarines realised they had fallen for the Word Bearers' ruse. When the ritual was completed, a large burst of Warp energy wracked both warships, causing severe damage throughout the Macragge's Honour. The ritual also conjured Word Bearers Legionaries and daemons, which materialised within the bowels of the'' Macragge's Honour'', and caused fighting to break out aboard the Loyalist warship. While leading squads of Ultramarines to repel the boarders, Chapter Master Gage came across a Greater Daemon. Realising that they must purge the flagship of the malefic intruders at all costs, Gage and a squad of Ultramarines charged the Greater Daemon in desperation. While the Ultramarines fought to regain control of their vessel, the Infidus Imperator began to break away, shredding the bridges between the two warships. Once he had regained control of his ship, Gage ordered that power be diverted from both the weapons and Void Shields to the flagship's engines in order to pursue the fleeing Word Bearers vessel. Gage reasoned that the Infidus Imperator had neither the time to calculate a Warp jump nor the required distance from the gravity field of Calth to safely translate into the Immaterium. However, Kor Phaeron had another trick up his sleeve. ]] Using the ''Shard of Erebus'', Kor Phaeron sliced a hole in realspace in front of the Infidus Imperator, allowing it to unexpectedly enter the Warp by arcane rather than technological means. At the protest of Hommed, Gage ordered pursuit of the Infidus Imperator, throwing caution to the wind. Following in the aetheric wake of the Infidus Imperator, Macragge's Honour translated into the Warp. Having successfully jumped into Warpspace, the Ultramarines quickly made a visual identification of the fleeing Infidus Imperator, despite the Navigator of the Ultramarines vessel proving unable to detect the Traitor warship. Once he realised that the Ultramarines' flagship would be unable to track its quarry if it could not maintain a visual on the Infidus Imperator, Kor Phaeron ordered his ship through a shoal of dead suns to try to lose the pursuing Ultramarines. In the course of its pursuit, the Macragge's Honour was suddenly stopped in its tracks by a collision with a Warp anomaly, which resulted in millions of Warp entities attacking the beleaguered Ultramarines vessel. Quickly realising that the Warp anomalies were penetrating the ship's protective Gellar Field, Gage ordered the Ultramarines to the voidlocks to cleanse the daemonic intruders on the hull. In the process of clearing the flagship's hull of daemons, Macragge's Honour lost its visual sighting of the Infidus Imperator. Kor Phaeron launched a vicious counterstrike, which resulted in severe damage to the Ultramarines flagship. Gage ordered the Loyalist starship's weapon batteries charged and loaded, and he fired a broad spread in the hope of hitting the Word Bearers' voidship. However, at the last moment, a contact was detected. Captain Mersaror, having survived the Word Bearers' summoning ritual, activated his homing tracer, providing the Macragge's Honour with a signal that allowed it to finally lock on to the Traitor vessel. Diverting all remaining power to weapons, the Macragge's Honour fired upon the Word Bearers warship, stunning Kor Phaeron and diverting his attack run. In order to ensure that the Infidus Imperator did not survive, Gage ordered a second volley, utterly annihilating the Word Bearers vessel and ending the pursuit. As a result, having suffered tremendous damage during the battle, the Macragge's Honour was left stranded in the Warp. Gage realised that it might take many standard years, even multiple human lifetimes, to return to the Realm of Ultramar. The mighty vessel would eventually do so and be restored to its position as the flagship of the Ultramarines Chapter, but only long after Guilliman had become interred in stasis following the Battle of Thessala in 121.M31 with Fulgrim. Ultramar Campaign In 999.M41, the Maccrage's Honour would be called into service during the Ultramar Campaign when the forces of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade invaded Ultramar with the intention of destroying the reawakened Roboute Guilliman and his allies before he became a serious threat to the forces of chaos. The Shrine World of Laphis was the site of the greatest naval engagement during this conflict when the Ultramar Defence Fleet engaged the ships of the Alpha Legion blockading the planet. Marneus Calgar commanded the offensive, seated in the captain's throne aboard the ancient flagship Macragge’s Honour. The Ultramarines vessels swept in through the void with their guns thundering, successfully driving back those Alpha Legion voidships engaged in orbital bombardment of the surface. Triumph turned to horror when a flotilla of fleeing Imperial bulk carriers were revealed to be crewed by Alpha Legion Chaos Cultists. Packed with explosives, the lumbering haulers ploughed into the Ultramarines vessels and crippled several. Calgar had expected treachery from his foes, however, and now revealed his own masterstroke as a second, reserve fleet of swift Strike Cruisers and frigates swept in from behind Laphis' third moon, Aurora. At the same time, elite strike units containing Ultramarines Techmarines dropped onto Laphis' surface and succeeded in awakening the world's battered orbital defence grid. Caught from three sides, the Alpha Legion warships were torn apart, left as a belt of drifting wreckage above the Shrine World. Terran Crusade When Guilliman finally declared his intention to return to Terra during the Terran Crusade, he travelled aboard his ancient flagship, Macragge’s Honour, a vessel that -- unlike so much of his surroundings after his resurrection -- provided the Primarch with a welcome sense of familiarity. Amidst fluctuating time streams and reality-warping energy storms which were rampant throughout the galaxy in the wake of the birth of the Great Rift, the ships of the Crusade struggled on. Ultimately trapped within the Warp rift known as the Maelstrom by a sorcerous ritual cast by the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red, the Macragge's Honour would lead the Terran Crusade fleet through that region for an unknown period of time. More than once, the Imperial ships were forced to fight off opportunist raids by sleek hunting packs of Traitor warships. Amidst a thousand-mile-wide cloud of corrosive spores, the Crusade ships found themselves beset by swarms of vast Plague Flies as large as frigates. The monstrous daemonic insects took a savage toll upon the smaller ships of the Crusade, until Saint Celestine took to the Navigator's observation blister of the Macragge's Honour. Unleashing her holy light in a blazing shockwave, the Living Saint purged the hideous Daemonic Beasts from the void. Such fortune would not last, however, as the legendary ship and the fleet it commanded were led into a trap set by the Red Corsairs and the Lord of Change Kairos Fateweaver. The Macragge's Honour was attacked and boarded. Guilliman was captured through the use of the Fateweaver's sorcery and imprisoned alongside the survivors in a Blackstone Fortress within the Maelstrom that had been given to the Red Corsairs by Abaddon the Despoiler. While the Primarch and his companions were ultimately able to escape their captivity with the aid of the Fallen Angel Cypher and the Harlequin Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker, the Macragge's Honour would remain in the hands of the Red Corsairs, the human crews who had kept the Crusade's starships operational all sacrificed to the Dark Gods alongside the fleet's Imperial Guardsmen and Sisters of Battle. Indomitus Crusade ]] At some point before the Indomitus Crusade was launched from Terra, Imperial forces were able to recapture the Maccrage's Honour from the hands of the Traitors and it once again became the flagship of Roboute Guilliman. Before it became the flagship of the Indomitus Crusade, the Macragge's Honour had undergone an extensive refit in the shipyards of the Ring of Iron around Mars, and the command deck had been entirely reconfigured from Guilliman's day. Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl's stamp was now on everything. New machines and unheard-of configurations of old devices replaced equipment that had been in use for tens of centuries. The more orthodox Tech-priests had been outraged, but Guilliman had silenced them in his determination to provide the Crusade with new technology that would provide an edge over Mankind's many foes, and Cawl had had his way. These changes had resulted in a 10% increase in tactical responsiveness alone for the ancient warship. Multiple redundancies and newly integrated systems also allowed for better survivability for the vessel's crew. Dozens of Tech-priests from Cawl's more progressive faction of the Adeptus Mechanicus were now on board the Macragge's Honour, labouring to keep the Archmagos' finely-balanced new systems working to his design. The Plague Wars When Guilliman returned to the Realm of Ultramar after the conclusion of the Indomitus Crusade and launched a sector-wide counter-offensive to drive back the Nurglite invasion known as the Plague Wars led by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and his Death Guard Traitor Legion, he would do so from aboard the Macragge's Honour. Sources *''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'' (Artbook), pg. 195 *''Know No Fear'' (Novel) by Dan Abnett, pp. 31, 39, 42, 61, 88, 101, 143, 154, 208, 237, 248-249, 253-254, 267, 281, 290, 302, 304 *''Macragge's Honour'' (Graphic Novel) by Dan Abnett *''Dark Imperium'' (Novel) by Guy Haley, pp. 76, 137, 568 *''Gathering Storm - Part III - Rise of the Primarch'' (7th Edition), pp. 64, 70, 80, 104 *''Battlefleet Gothic Armada II'' (PC Game) (Image) Category:M Category:Battleships Category:History Category:Imperial History Category:Imperial Spacecraft Category:Imperium Category:Space Marines Category:Spacecraft Category:Ultramarines Category:Gloriana-class Battleships